State of the mobile web - blogs.opera.com · 23% of the Opera Mini user base in Tanzania accessed the video platform, while in Nigeria and Kenya, only 17% of the user base accessed

*Data references on page 31

State of the mobile web2019Africa in focus

www.opera.com 2 3

State of the mobile web 2019 #SMWAfrica

Leading the digital transformation in Africa

ContentPage 18

Mobile data savings

Page 20

Data savings impacts value of data

Page 22

Opera News - The number one news app

Page 24

From zero to 20 million users

Page 25

The leading news apps

Page 28

Media consumptionpatterns in Opera News

Page 29

Fast growing video consumption

Page 30

Afterword

Page 31

References

Page 5

Foreword

Page 6

Key numbers

Page 8

Africa - Rapid Digitalization

Page 9

Fast growing - Opera apps in Africa

Page 10

Transition towards smartphones

Page 12

Trends in apps and media usage

Page 13

Everyday media habits

Page 14

Social media and browsing

Page 16

More than 30 minutes of daily browsing with Opera Mini

www.opera.com 4 5


In this report we take a closer look at the usage

and reasons why more than 100 million Africans

choose Opera. Moreover, we look at the growth of

our browsers and standalone news application, the

trends for video consumption in Africa, access to

social media, and we explain how data savings in our

products saved Opera users in Africa almost $100

million USD in 2018.

Foreword

For more than 20 years, Opera has been providing people around the world with fast and smart browsers. Today, Opera has moved beyond being a browser developer. Our mobile apps and AI news services accompany more than 350 million people from all around the world on their daily lives.

In our State of Mobile Web 2019 report, we take

a detailed look at the African region. Opera was

the first browsers that brought the full Internet

experience to mobile phones. Today, Opera is

leading the exciting digital revolution in Africa,

with a fast growing user base, and we are now also

expanding also beyond doing web browsers. In

the first quarter of 2019 there were well nearly 120

million people across Africa who choose Opera’s

applications in their everyday lives. Currently, one

in five Africans use the Opera mobile browsers,

spending more than 30 minutes browsing every day.

In countries such as Nigeria and Kenya, Opera

is the browser of choice for every second

mobile internet user. We are thankful that people

choose Opera, instead of the browsers that come

preinstalled on their devices. We believe this is

because our products are unique and tailored to

carefully address people’s needs.

Jørgen ArnesenGlobal Head of Marketing

and Distribution at Opera

www.opera.com 6 7


350million

119million

30 +minutes

26%YoY Growth

40 %growth

100.000.000 USD

20 +million

150million

MAU of Opera products

worldwide Q1 2019.Monthly active users of

Opera products in Africa.

Opera Mini users in Africa

spend 30+ minutes on daily

browsing by the end of

Q1-2019.

Total user base of apps in

Africa grew by more than

25% in YoY comparison.

High end browser Opera

for Android, grew its user

base by 40% in Africa as

of Q1-2019.

In the top 20 African countries people saved

an estimate of $100 million USD in mobile

data by using Opera products in 2018.

More than 20+ million in

Opera News standalone

news app in Africa.

Users of Opera News

service globally.

The new standard: The Opera Browser, with more speed and privacy. Free for Mobile, Mac, PC and with a built-in VPN, ad blocker, and crypto wallet.

Opera Mini is one of the world’s most popular and efficient mobile browsers available, featuring a built-in ad blocker, data savings, and news feed.

The fastest growing news app in Africa. Get fast news and watch trending videos in Instaclips, while saving data with AI currated content.

Spotlight – Africa and global

www.opera.com 8 9


1, 2, 3, 4 5, data references on page 31

Africa is a region set for a rapid digital expansion.

The 2019 Digital report by WeAreSocial, names a

total of 437 million African internet users across

the continent1. The report also shows that as for

the full year of 2018, a total of 38 million Africans

became new internet users and are now able to

explore the web. The same report shows that

internet usage throughout mobile devices is

on high demand among Africans. From January

2018 to January 2019, a total of 51 million people

got a new mobile subscription. Additionally,

another report from GSM from 2018, forecasts

that by 2025, Africa will get 300 million new

internet users2.

Opera is growing its user base in this expanding

market. From the first quarter of 2018 to the same

period in 2019, Opera grew its mobile user base

in Africa by 26%. This represents a total of 25

million incremental monthly active users (MAU)

across browser applications and stand alone

news app in the African region.

The fact that Opera applications have a growth

rate two times higher than new internet users in

Africa is partly attributed to the relevance and

popularity of the Opera brand among Africans.

Recent surveys conducted in 2019 in South

Africa3, Kenya4 and Nigeria5, show that eight

out of ten internet users in these countries

recognize Opera’s browsers together with

other browsers like Google Chrome. Moreover,

the same surveys show that despite being a

new application in the market, Opera News

became the most recognized news app in these

countries. In Nigeria and Kenya, seven out of ten

people identify our Opera News app. In South

Africa, almost half of the internet users identify

the Opera News app together with other news

sources such as BBC and Google News.

Rapid Digitalization fueling Opera’s growth

Fast growing:Opera apps in Africa

Q1 2018 Q1 2019

Average monthly users of Opera browsers

& news app in first quarter of 2019

26%YoY Growth

26% total year over year growth comparison

Overall, Opera’s mobile

and PC user base in Africa

increased with more than

25 million users.

94million

119million

www.opera.com 10 11


Smartphone adoption in Africa brings new

opportunities for mobile developers like

Opera to grow their user base. According to

Statcounter Global Stats6, Android is by far

the most preferred operating system in the

African region with 83% of the market share,

followed by iOS at 10%. The usage of remaining

platforms including Windows, Nokia and

BlackBerry, is slowly dropping with a decline

11% on a yearly basis.

The continuous adoption of smartphones has

been increasingly important for Opera to provide

unique applications for high-end smartphone

users. This strategy is proven effective with high

growth of our flagship mobile browser, Opera

for Android. From the first quarter of 2018 to

the same period in 2019, Opera for Android

increased its user base by 40% in Africa.

The usage of Opera for Android surged after the

inclusion of new and unique features that include

a free VPN and a crypto wallet. Additionally, this

increase also relates to the partnerships that

Opera has with smartphone manufacturers in

Africa. In this context, Opera for Android proved

Smartphone transition is key for faster adoption of Opera apps

strong growth among high-end smartphone

users who prefer our most sophisticated browser.

As for iOS, Opera launched a new product, Opera

Touch, providing also iOS users with key Opera

features like a native ad-blocker.

From the first quarter

of 2018 to the same

period in 2019, Opera

for Android increased

its user base with

40% in Africa.

6, data references on page 31

www.opera.com 12 13


7, 8, 9, ata references on page 31

Everyday browsing habits

Watch TV

Mobile browsing

89%

92%

67%

60%

45%

28%

YouTube

Facebook

Radio

Twitter

0% 25% 50% 75% 100%

While there is significant competition on smart-

phones from other categories of applications,

mobile browsers have remained a highly popular

category of apps. A recent survey made in South

Africa7, revealed that nine out of ten people

use their mobile browser every day on their

smartphone. This was ahead of the use of apps

like YouTube at 65% and Facebook at 60%.

Nine out of ten people use their mobile browser every day

Also, a significant portion of the traffic to those

services are made through the mobile browsers,

illustrating the significance of mobile browsers in

Africa. The 2018 State of the Mobile Web Africa stated

that 35% of South Africans preferred to use their

mobile browsers rather than standalone applications

for accessing social media8. The main reasons to use

a mobile browser for accessing social media platforms

relate to protecting online privacy and avoiding online

advertisement. The importance of the mobile browser

is also shown in Nigeria where a 2018 study by Opera9

showed that nine out of ten smartphone internet users

stated they use mobile browsers every day. Overall,

76% of Nigerians choose to access Facebook from

their mobile browser while 74% of them prefer to

search for news.

Percentage of respondents using media/app one or more times per day.

www.opera.com 14 15


Social Media

Search

Entertainment

0% 7,5% 15% 22,5% 30%

Knowledge

Other

News

Sports

Across Africa, the mobile browser is a major

source of traffic for accessing social media. In

Q1- 2019, Opera Mini registered that 31% of

browsing sessions are to social media platform

domains, with Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram

being the most popular ones.

In South Africa, a recent survey10 showed that

people are accessing video platforms such as

YouTube more often than other platforms like

Facebook. Moreover, the survey also reported

that 50% of South African internet users read

news articles everyday. Often they prefer

to access social media platforms for news

consumption rather than reading print media.

In Nigeria, Facebook is still the most relevant

social media platform. An Opera survey from

201811 revealed that eight out of ten people

access Facebook on a daily basis. A detailed

look into the Opera Mini user base in Nigeria in

Q1-2019 showed that 55% of Nigerians prefer

to access Facebook from the mobile browser. In

the same period, Facebook also ranked as the

most accessed platform from mobile browsers

in Kenya and Ghana, with 40% of the Opera user

base using the browser for this purpose.

Opera mobile browsers are also a gateway for

people in Africa to access video content. In

March 2019, statistics from Opera show that

Tanzanians are more likely to access YouTube

from their mobile browser than people in

countries like Nigeria or Kenya. In this period,

23% of the Opera Mini user base in Tanzania

accessed the video platform, while in Nigeria and

Kenya, only 17% of the user base accessed this

platform.

Overall, Opera’s

mobile and PC

user base in Africa

increased with more

than 25 million users.

Mobile browser is a massive source of social media users

Mobile browser activities

10, 11, data references on page 31

Percentage of websites browsed per category with Opera Mini.

www.opera.com 16 17


Opera has a significant focus on how much time

people spend browsing the web. On average,

Africans using Opera spend more than 30 minutes

browsing on a daily basis.

The most browsed category of websites were social

media platform domains such as Facebook, YouTube

and Instagram, followed by search engine websites

like Google and entertainment/video and sport

websites.

This split of the categories was determined by Opera

after making an analysis of the top 20 most visited

websites across the African region, based on the

browsing behaviour of the Opera Mini user base.

More than 30 minutes of daily browsing with Opera Mini

www.opera.com 18 19



All Opera products feature data saving

capabilities, made to ensure faster and cheaper

browsing almost regardless of the network

conditions.

The data compression mode in Opera Mini has the

capability to pre-process and reduce the amount

of data from a website before it reaches the user’s

phone. This allows faster navigation, increases the

browsing speed and extends the user’s data plan.

For Opera users, this means they get more value

out of their data costs, while enjoying a better

internet experience even when network conditions

are less than optimal. The 2018 data saving test12,

reported that the extreme data compression mode

in Opera Mini is capable of saving more than 90%

of mobile data. The test compared the capabilities

of Opera Mini and other browsers by loading a

list of the top ten most visited websites in Kenya,

Nigeria and South Africa according to SimilarWeb

during the summer of 2018. The test showed that

the data compression mode in Opera Mini is

capable of reducing web page sizes by 90%. The

test also found that the average web page size was

Data saving test results Opera Mini

OperaExtreme

90.36%

0% 25% 50% 75% 100%

3MB, while Opera Mini only loaded 0.3MB of data

per website. These results proved that people who

use a default browser without data compression

may spend significantly more money on mobile

data than those who choose Opera Mini. On

average, people who browse with Opera Mini are

able to get nine times more out of their mobile data

than using browsers without data compression.

0

1M

2M

3M

4M

5M

TZKEZAZW0

0.25M

0.50M

0.75M

1M

1.25M

LYETUGBJMZNG

$100 million dollars savedin mobile data

Top 10 Opera Mini savings per country (USD)

Estimated yearly saving for Opera Mini user base (USD).

www.opera.com 20 21



The cost of data per Gigabyte Germany and India vs African countries

Versus

Across Africa, Opera users saved an impressive

77 petabytes (77 million gigabytes) of mobile

data in 2018 due to the data saving features in

Opera’s products.

When considering mobile data costs from the

recent report presented by Cable UK 201813, using

a shortlist of the top twenty African countries, the

amount of gigabytes saved translates to nearly

100 million dollars.

On average, South Africans pay around 7.19 USD

for one gigabyte of mobile data which is 28 times

more expensive than India, and almost the same

price as Germany. In Q1-2019, the Opera Mini user

base in South Africa saved more than 3 million USD

on mobile data, or equal to R47 million, by using

the data compression technology of the browser.

In Nigeria mobile data costs are five times cheaper

than in South Africa, and four times cheaper than

in Germany. In total, Nigerian Opera Mini users

saved more than two million gigabytes in the first

quarter of 2019. This equates to approximately 20

million USD, or 1.5 billion NGN for users who enable

data compression mode on the browser.

Moreover, Kenyans pay eleven times more than

Indians for one gigabyte of mobile data, being one

of the countries with the highest cost of mobile

data after South Africa. In the first quarter of

2019, the Kenyan user base of Opera Mini saved

approximately 3 million USD or 304 million KES.

0.3USD/GB

India

20USD/GB

Benin

7USD/GB

South Africa

6USD/GB

Tanzania

2USD/GB

Nigeria

7USD/GBGermany

16USD/GB

Mozambique

6USD/GB

Somalia

3USD/GB

Kenya

1.5USD/GB

Ghana

1 Gigabyte of data will last 9 times longer with Opera Mini Extreme

1

15

8

22

29

2

16

9

23

30

3

17

10

24

31

4

18

11

25

5

19

12

26

6

20

13

27

7

21

14

28

No data compression

Opera Mini Extreme

No data compression

3 days

Opera Mini Extreme

28 daysAmount of days a 1GB data package will last with average browsing per user.

www.opera.com 22 23*Data references on page 31


Opera News is both a service inside Opera’s mobile

browsers and a standalone content platform app for

Android and iOS. Globally, the Opera News service has

a reach of more than 150 million monthly users.

Launched in January 2018, Opera News provides an AI-

based, personalized content stream that serves daily

content on top news, trendy videos and content from

more than 40 different categories.Similar to the Opera

browser, users of the Opera News standalone app also

benefit from Opera’s unique data saving capabilities.

By Q1-2019, the application was the most downloaded

news app for Android devices in Nigeria, Kenya, South

Africa and Ghana according to AppAnnie.

150 millionUsed the Opera News service globallyin the app and mobile browsers in the first quarter of 2019.

The numberone news appin Africa

www.opera.com 24 25



Opera News quickly became the most down-

loaded news app in Africa reaching more than

10 million downloads on the first six months

after its launch in the market. Its popularity

increased during the last football World Cup

in the summer of 2018 as the app added

dedicated channels with live football scores

and news about the world cup.

In the first quarter of 2019, the standalone

Opera News app reported over 20 million

monthly active users across Africa, with Nigeria

Downloads charts Google Play. Source AppAnnie March 2019

Average MAU Opera News

app for Android and iOS

Nigeria

1

2

3

Opera News

Scooper News

Twitter

1

2

3

Opera News

Scooper News

Twitter

Kenya

1

2

3

Opera News

Twitter

IEC South Africa

South Africa

1

2

3

Opera News

Twitter

Ghana News

Ghana

Q1 2018 Q1 2019

21M

7M

From

7 Million in Q1 2018

To

21 millionin Q1 2019

as the biggest single market, and more than 30

million users globally. The total user number

for the Opera News service, when including

its distribution through the Opera browsers,

was 150 million globally. Today, Opera News is

available in Africa in several local languages,

including English, Swahili, Arabic, Portuguese

and French.

Opera News is the most popular news

application in both Nigeria and Kenya in terms of

both downloads and brand awareness14.

The most popular news appin several markets

News app from zero to more than 20 million African users

www.opera.com 26 27


Most recognized news apps in Kenya Q1 2019

Most recognized news apps in Nigeria Q1 2019

0

0

20%

20%

40%

40% 60%

60%

80%

Opera News

Opera News

TUKO

Vanguard News App

Nation News

Channels TV Mobile App

Already the mostknown news app

Amount of people recognize product brands

10, 11, data references on page 31

www.opera.com 28 29


Opera News classifies its news content into more

than 40 different categories. In the first quarter

of 2019, the most read category of news articles

was Breaking News. This category of news stories

was closely followed by local news.

During 2018, the Opera News app was deeply

localized for African countries and major efforts

were made to help people find relevant local

news stories. The third most read category

was entertainment news. On the other end of

the scale, the less popular articles included

At the very end of 2018, Opera News introduced

Instaclips, a new feature that allows people to

upload, share and watch entertaining videos

from the web. Already in the first full quarter of

the service being available, Opera News users

in Africa uploaded 122 thousand videos to the

platform.

The feature quickly gained popularity among the

Opera News user base, with time spent on video

content from this new feature growing quickly.

By Q1-2019, on average, our African users spent

Breaking and local news are the most popular categories in Opera News

Opera News users spend 50% of in-app time watching videos

Categories of interest among Africans in Q1 2019

Breaking News

Local News

Entertainment

0% 5% 10% 15%

Food

Sports

Business

Most read Least read

food and business. It is however important to

note that Opera News users consumed a wide

variety of articles from almost any type of the

category shown in the app. This is an expected

consequence of the AI-powered personalization

engine which feed content to the users that is

hyper relevant to their own interests.

more than 50% of their time in Opera News

watching videos on Instaclips - a clear sign of

engagement considering the service has been

live for only three months. The majority of the end

user generated content was in English, reflecting

Opera’s significant user bases in Nigeria, Kenya

and South Africa.

Exclusive feature

Instaclips

Percentage of articles viewed (CTR)

per content category in Opera News app

www.opera.com 30 31


Page 8 Rapid digitalization fueling Opera’s growth

1. “Global Digital Report 2019 - We Are Social.”

https://wearesocial.com/global-digital-report-2019. Accessed 4 Jun. 2019.

2. “GSMA More Than Half of Sub-Saharan Africa to be Connected to ....” 17 Jul. 2018,

https://www.gsma.com/newsroom/press-release/more-than-half-of-sub-

saharan-africa-to-be-connected-to-mobile-by-2025-finds-new-gsma-study/.

Accessed 4 Jun. 2019

3. Pollfish online panel: Opera Brand Survey South Africa 2019

4. Pollfish online panel: Opera Brand Survey Kenya 2019

5. Pollfish online panel: Opera Brand Survey Nigeria 2019

Page 10 Smartphone transition is key for faster adoption of Opera apps

6. “Africa - Mobile Operating System Market Share Africa | StatCounter ....”

http://gs.statcounter.com/os-market-share/mobile/africa.

Accessed 4 Jun. 2019.

Page 12 Nine out of ten people use their mobile browser every day


Page 13 8. “Opera sheds light to its latest report in South Africa ...

- The Opera Blog.” 16 Apr. 2018,

https://blogs.opera.com/mobile/2018/04/south-africans-

turn-mobile-browser-access-social-media-privacy-

reasons-opera-news-favorite-news-app/. Accessed 4 Jun. 2019.

9. Pollfish online panel: Opera News Leading News App in Nigeria 2018

Page 14 Mobile browser is a massive source of social media users


11. Pollfish online survey: Opera News leading News App in Nigeria 2018

Page 19 100 million dollars saved in mobile data

12. Data saving test: Data usage Opera Mini vs Chrome 2018

Page 20 1 Gigabyte of data will last 9 times longer with Opera Mini Extreme

13. “Worldwide Mobile Data Pricing League | Cost of 1GB in ... - Cable.co.uk.”

https://www.cable.co.uk/mobiles/worldwide-data-pricing/. Accessed 4 Jun. 2019

Page 24 News app from zero to more than 20 million African users

14. Pollfish online panel: Opera Brand Survey Nigeria 2019

ReferencesAfterword

Africa is a continent which is undertaking a rapid digital transformation. The 2019 State of Mobile Web

report provided insight into some of the trends and growth challenges of African internet users, as

they rapidly adopt smartphone devices. At Opera we see that mobile data cost still remains a challenge

across Africa. Our data compression technology saved more than 100 million dollars in mobile data

costs in 2018, something we believe a lot more users in Africa also could benefit from. The growth of

our Opera News platform illustrates how the digital media landscape will continue to develop with a

rapid speed. A major trend to watch will be how the consumption will continue to move forward towards

video, which we believe will become increasingly important.

Opera has significant ambitions for Africa and

we continue to be among the leaders of this

digital transformation. With more than twenty

years of experience tailoring products for this

market, we set out in 2017 with new growth plans

to invest one hundred million dollars in Africa.

Since then, we have pursued an Africa-first

strategy, launching many of our new applications

and services in this region before expanding to

other geographies. We believe this has provided

us with products better tailored for the market

than our competition.

Today, we continue to develop unique browsers

that among other benefits, continue to bring

people in Africa a faster web experience. But

while this report emphasizes the importance of

browsers, Opera has already expanded much

beyond our origin with the news aggregation

platform, as well as our Fintech operations, and

we continuously seek out further expansions to

continue accelerating the digital shift in Africa.

© Opera 2019www.opera.com

Documents

State of the mobile web - blogs.opera.com · 23% of the Opera Mini user base in Tanzania accessed the video platform, while in Nigeria and Kenya, only 17% of the user base accessed